Threat of Closure Looms for Pleasant Ridge Small Businesses

Rumors surrounding the fate of beloved
Pleasant Ridge small businesses including Everybody’s Records and Gas
Light Café have been bubbling as of late, ignited by claims that
drugstore chain Walgreens has expressed interest in purchasing the
property in favor of demolishing the existing architecture to make way
for a new, deluxe Walgreens location.

Everybody’s Records, the small,
independent record store on the corner of Montgomery Road and Ridge
Avenue, has called the block home since opening in 1978. The Gas Light
Café has been at its Pleasant Ridge location since 1989.

The effort is spearheaded by Anchor
Properties, a Covington-based commercial real estate developer that’s
done development work for Walgreens in the past.

Attempts to communicate
with Anchor Property representatives were unsuccessful.

Pleasant Ridge is one of only five
city-designated community entertainment districts in the city of
Cincinnati, a catalyst that’s helped revitalized the area’s business
district since its December 2010 designation.

Both Everybody’s and Gas Light Café rent
property from landlords, who would have the ultimate say over whether or
not to accept a buyout offer from Walgreens.

On Friday, June 15, the Cincinnati City
Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on the recommendation of
establishing an Interim Development Control (IDC) Overlay District in
Pleasant Ridge, which would require any plans for construction,
demolition or changes in zoning, such as a Walgreens drive thru, to be
first approved by commission.

According to Charles Graves, director of
Cincinnati’s Department of City Planning and Buildings, that approval is
not something he’s inclined to give; “We’re trying to preserve the
walkable, historic Main Street nature of that neighborhood,” Graves
says.